Last year was a good one for...

Last year was a good one for stocks included in the Dow Jones Industrial and Standard & Poor’s 500 averages, both of which were up 27%. San Diego-based companies, most of them smaller and not held by institutional investors, did not fare as well, said Irving Katz, director of research at Thomas Green/San Diego Securities.

Of the 60-odd publicly traded San Diego firms, the average gain was about 18%.

Leading the local gainers was International Totalizator, which began to show excellent profits from its large backlog, gaining 271% for the year. Following were DH Technology, up 160% on increasing quarterly earnings, and Mycogen, a biopesticide company that was up 141%.

As a group, the best gains were made by the small banks, as takeover prospects made for sharp increases. BSD Bancorp was up 123%; La Jolla Bancorp, which will be merged into Security Pacific Bank this year, was up 98%; First National was up 72%, and San Diego National Bancorp was up 60%. Southwest Bank was up 50% before the stock was merged with Security Pacific in 1989.

Other good gains were made in special situations, including Xytronyx, up 139%; Medical Imaging Centers, up 114%; Mail Boxes Etc., up 100%; Infrasonics, up 86%, and Magma Power, up 59%. Of the institutional favorites, Home Federal gained 58%, San Diego Gas & Electric 18%, and Price Club 23%. Rohr Industries was down 27%.

San Diego stocks that fell were led by Imperial Corp. of America, down 89% as its problem loans and junk bond portfolio continued to be a factor. Following were CCT Corp., down 73%; SSI, down 57%; Lancer Orthodontics, down 56%, and Amistar, down 55%.

Investors became impatient waiting for biotechnology companies to show earnings. As a result, Agouron Pharmaceuticals was down 40% and Synbiotics was down 34% for the year.

During the year, Western Health Plans’ stock was delisted and became valueless. Fisher Scientific Group was merged into Henley Group at $22.25 a share. Gen-Probe was purchased by Chugai Pharmaceutical at $6.25 a share. Monitor Technology was purchased by Lear-Siegler at $8 a share. Pancretec was purchased by Abbott Laboratories at $15 a share, and Langley Corp. was merged into Fleet Aerospace.

Henley Group and Syntro both moved and consequently were dropped from San Diego County stock listings. Furnishings 2000, Telequest, Weaver Arms and Yuba Natural Resources were dropped by NASDAQ and from the listings as well.

Three companies have been added to the list to begin the year. Alliance Pharmaceutical and MarrowTech, which recently moved to San Diego, and the locally based vitamin and mineral manufacturer Natural Alternatives are being added to the list. Natural Alternatives last week had a 1-for-50 reverse stock split.